I'm excited to get into this new hobby. I've read Beekeeping for Dummies. I try not to self reflect on the title of this book. I'm also starting to read "The Hive and The Honey Bee" revised by Dadant. Any more good reference books out there for recommendation.

I live in Ontario, California for now. My parents have about a 1/4 acre of sloping hillside that I plan on starting a couple of Hives. My backyard is kinda small. Maybe 40 feet wide and 80 feet long, with neighbors houses on two sides that I could touch with my broom handle. I know people have hives with neighbors this close. Is it a good idea to keep a hive at my house? Has anybody had a bad experience in this kind of situation. They love me by the way, for now.

Since your just starting , it might not hurt to toss it out to the neigbors before hand. They could be cool and like it , or they could also catch a bad case of not in my neigborhood. Better safe than sorry. You don't need a fight right off the starting line. The otherside is you could find and /or check for a rural area thats out of the way and put your hives there. There are people that would want them on there land for lots of reasons. Again it depends on your neighbors see what there feedback is.

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Each new day brings decisions, these are new branches on the tree of life.

Ontario is about 45 minutes east of LA. Placerville is a nice area. I've been looking at buying some kind of farm. Your area comes up often. I'm sure you live in a nice area. Do you have a nice size piece of land or a small backyard like me.

Thanks for the support, I'm going to need it. It's nice to find friendly people to talk to about something so exciting. I'm looking for a start up kit at this moment. The biggest question on my mind is frames. Plastic or wood. I leaning toward the wood. Seems more natural for the bees, giving them a tree trunk feel. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Matt, Waterhunter. Welcome to our forum, so nice that you have found us. Interesting and intriguing name by the way. You think that you are excited now about keeping bees, with all the learning that you are doing, you ain't seen nuthing' yet!!! The world of the honeybee is one of the most fascinating of all, their secret little life that we delve into, how we help them and they help us, it is like a partnership of pure love. You would do well, in my honest opinion, to keep a colony at your home or two and a couple at your Parent's home. Find out for sure if your neighbours would mind, they probably wouldn't, but do make sure first, you don't want to raise arms against you, especially if they love you, as you say that they do, hee, hee, smiling. It is nice to be on good terms with the neighbours. Stick around, ask as many questions as you want to, we were all beginning beekeepers too, we all needed someone to mentor us, be is personal mentoring, books, cyberspace, welcome aboard. Have that most wonderful and awesome life, day, health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Ontario is about 45 minutes east of LA. Placerville is a nice area. I've been looking at buying some kind of farm. Your area comes up often. I'm sure you live in a nice area. Do you have a nice size piece of land or a small backyard like me.

Matt

I have 3 acres in a semi residential area. Placerville is like that. You can have one house zoned for just a few acres right next to someone with 10 or 20 acres. But I do not even keep my bees on my property. I could keep them here, but I keep them up the block from me on a friends property. He has 20 acres and large garden and orchard and the bees just love it there.

Thanks for the support, I'm going to need it. It's nice to find friendly people to talk to about something so exciting. I'm looking for a start up kit at this moment. The biggest question on my mind is frames. Plastic or wood. I leaning toward the wood. Seems more natural for the bees, giving them a tree trunk feel. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks Matt

Matt I am a new beekeeper also having started April 2006. I have only 2 bee hives, but I have learned so much in this short period of time. I started out with plastic frames, but now I go with all wood and no foundation. Meaning all foundationless. This allows the bees to draw out the wax on the frames themselves and they make the cell size any way they want it to be. Be careful and read, read, read before purchasing any equipment or else you will find yourself changing everything around later. I started with all deep supers,but learned the hard way that they get very heavy. So I switched them all out to mediums only. Everything one size, even the honey supers are mediums.

Not sure about those starter kits either. I think the beekeepers here on the forum mostly say to purchase just what you need and sometimes those kits come with stuff you do not need at all. You should be hearing soon from some experts on this matter.

That is my photo on the cover of Beekeeping for Dummies, so you already have a bit of the forum in your home :)

I'm writing to mention your yard. My old property was 50X100 with a big house and motorhome and two sheds. I kept the hive directly along a picket fence along my neighbors yard line nearest their driveway, through 3 sets of neighbors.

Each neighbor from age 10 to adults I have photos of them holding bare handed frames of bee - not always packed full, but enough to amaze and educated them. Knowledge is your best friend in beekeeping, sharing it with your neighbor, all the good and bad is essential stuff.

If they know bees fly out and up and the entrance faces away from them, then they learn the flight patterns are way over there heads, they lean of the polinatin that occirs and should even share in the excess honey for being good neighbore - the too could be good customers if you plant a seed on how good honey is for Gifts.

IT isn't hard to have a handful of hives on a small property. It is up to you to keep them from being a bother and proper hive positioning is everything. Stick around the forum here and you surely will learn a lot. I'll just leave by saying, people with much less land than eith of us have done miracles.

If you have neighbors who are objectionable, the surely check your zoning rules (do it any way) to see what rights you have, sometime a field down the road where a small farm needs pollination IS the better choice, but having them home MAKES you a better beekeeper I believe. Watching them grow and develop into prductive hives, swarming regularly, Wintering properly and making it to the following Spring are all wonderful things the build confindence to the new beekeeper - good luck.

Please enjoy the forum, and if it has helped you in any way, we hope that a small donation can be made to support our FULLY member supported forum. You will never see advertisements here, and that is because of the generous members who have made our forum possible. We are in our second decade as a beekeeping forum and all thanks to member support. At the top right of every page is a donations link. Please help if you can.

Welcome! Remember too that if you feel like you are bugging people with questions (you aren't really!) you can use the search, I think every question I've ever asked was also asked in the past!

The nice thing about having 2 possible locations is that you can move them if the neighbors have a problem with them in your backyard. If you aren't sure, keep them at your parents house, and then start out with a little one in your yard and see how it goes.

It is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Most people know squat about bees, and if you ask them ahead of time if they would like a box full of nasty, stinging, mean, attacking (the common un-educated perspective!) insects in your back yard the answer would be NO!. If you can put them in the yard and the neighbors can see that they aren't a problem, then they may not mind so much.

Annette, why don't you keep the bees at your place? They WILL travel up the road to the neighbour's place where the bees are now living. It would make your life so much easier if they were home with ya. I am sure there is a good reason, but I need to know why? Have a wonderful and most awesome day, life, health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Annette, why don't you keep the bees at your place? They WILL travel up the road to the neighbour's place where the bees are now living. It would make your life so much easier if they were home with ya. I am sure there is a good reason, but I need to know why? Have a wonderful and most awesome day, life, health. Cindi

I am down the road and in a sort of valley. It is about 5-7 degrees cooler at my house than my friends property which is up on a nice hill. There is a lot more moisture here at my place. I do not have anything for the bees to forage on here as all the deer that live here, eat everything I plant. We have someone who cuts the grass and does some landscaping for me all summer, but if I place the beehives here, no one will want to go anywhere near them. Also I do have neighbors around and the bees might go to their water in the summer.

I may at some point place some hives here and see what happens, but for now the bees are really happy up the hill and everything is so close for them. Also my friend has given me access to a large barn to store everything and a very large freezer to store supers. I have a very small house and not much storage.

Oh Annette, I see, I understand, that all makes good sense. Your home sounds like it is in a very pretty place. Do you have a camera? Can you one day take some pictures to show us? I would love to see your place. I wish that more of our forum friends would show us where they live. We all should be so proud of our little place on earth that we live on. Have a wonderful and great day, life, health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Thanks for giving me so much help. I should have taken up beekeeping earlier if i new there where so many cool beekeepers already out there. I know I'll learn a lot from all of you. I go to my first beekeeping meeting this thursday. Can't wait!. Thanks again for the welcome. Oh and now I want to move to Placerville, All I need is an acre or two. :)

Oh Annette, I see, I understand, that all makes good sense. Your home sounds like it is in a very pretty place. Do you have a camera? Can you one day take some pictures to show us? I would love to see your place. I wish that more of our forum friends would show us where they live. We all should be so proud of our little place on earth that we live on. Have a wonderful and great day, life, health. Cindi